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...there are frequent identifications of the "external" in the process of organic evolution with the physical, and of the internal with the "biological"--forgetting that the biological includes physical, chemical and physicochemical factors as the moment and necessary condition for its realisation, while the "external" in regard to a particular organism in its turn is composed not only of the physical conditions of inorganic nature, but also of the biological surroundings of other organisms, in the midst of and in interaction with which the life of the species proceeds. As for man, the "external" consists first of all of socio-economic productive relations and the condition of material productive forces, by which the socio-historical process is determined.

Boris Zavadovsky, The "Physical" and "Biological" in the Process of Organic Evolution, 1931

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"Naturalists imagine that they are emancipating themselves from philosophy when they ignore or abuse it. But as they cannot stir a step without thought, while for thought logical definitions are necessary; and these definitions they incautiously borrow either from the current theoretical property of so-called educated people, who are dominated by the remnants of long-passed-away philosophic systems, or else from their uncritical and unsystematic reading of all kinds of philosophical works: in the long run they prove after all to be prisoners to philosophy, but, unfortunately, for the most part philosophy of the very worst quality. And so people who are particularly vehement in abusing philosophy become the slaves of the worst vulgarized relies of the worst philosophical systems"

Friedrich Engels, Dialectics of Nature, 1872-1882

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Both the Italian fascists and the Nazis made a conscious effort to steal the Left's thunder. There were mass mobilizations, youth organizations, work brigades, rallies, parades, banners, symbols, and slogans. There was much talk about a "Nazi revolution" that would revitalize society, sweeping away the old order and building the new.

For this reason, mainstream writers feel free to treat fascism and communism as totalitarian twins. It is a case of reducing essence to form. The similarity in form is taken as reason enough to blur the vast difference in actual class content. Writers like A. James Gregor and William Ebenstein, countless Western political leaders, and others who supposedly are on the democratic Left, regularly lump fascism with communism. Thus, Noam Chomsky claims, "The rise of corporations was in fact a manifestation of the same phenomena that led to fascism and Bolshevism, which sprang out of the same totalitarian soil." but in the Italy and Germany of that day, most workers and peasants made a firm distinction between fascism and communism, as did industrialists and bankers who supported fascism out of fear and hatred of communism, a judgement based largely on class realities.

Michael Parenti, Blackshirts & Reds: Rational Fascism & the Overthrow of Communism, 1997

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Hitler is usually portrayed as an ideological fanatic, uninterested in crass material things. In fact, he accumulated an immense fortune, much of it in questionable ways. He expropriated art works from the public domain. He stole enormous sums from Nazi party coffers. He invented a new concept, the "personality right," that enabled him to charge a small fee for every postage stamp with his picture on it, a venture that made him hundreds of millions of marks.

The greatest source of Hitler's wealth was a secret slush fund to which leading German industrialists regularly donated. Hitler "knew that as long as German industry was making money, his private money sources would be inexhaustible. Thus, he'd see to it that German industry was never better off than under his rule -- by launching, for one thing, gigantic armament projects," or what we today would call fat defense contracts.

Far from being the ascetic, Hitler lived self-indulgently. During his entire tenure in office he got special rulings from the German tax office that allowed him to avoid paying income or property taxes. He had a motor pool of limousines, private apartments, country homes, a vast staff of servants, and a majestic estate in the Alps. His happiest times were spent entertaining European royalty, including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who numbered among his enthusiastic admirers.

Michael Parenti, Blackshirts & Reds: Rational Fascism & the Overthrow of Communism, 1997

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Prices were collapsing worldwide on the brink of the Great Depression, and this induced a price war among the major oil companies. Like the other leading oil companies, AIOC had two options: compete to win new markets for investment or set up joint ventures with other companies and divide markets among them. In response, AIOC actively pursued a parallel policy on world oil production, prices, and synthetic fuel technology. In August 1928, during the same period as his meeting with Iranian government officials in Switzerland, [John Cadman, chairman of AIOC] traveled to Achnacarry, Scotland, and agreed with the heads of the major international oil companies such as Standard Oil of New Jersey, Royal Dutch / Shell, Gulf Oil, and Standard Oil of Indiana to enter into a “Pool Association” or “As-Is” agreement. This monopoly arrangement was designed to manage the glut of oil supplies by establishing a uniform selling price so that participants would not have to worry about price competition. The group agreed to control world oil production as well, enabling the companies to increase their output above volumes indicated by their market quotas, but only so long as the extra production was sold to the other pool members.

The “As-Is” agreement additionally formed part of a much larger “hydrocarbon cartel” concerning not just oil but the chemical and coal industries. The goal was to control the chemical industry and block the coal industry from accessing the patented use of a hydrogenation technology known as the Bergius process that could be used to convert coal into oil and develop synthetic fuels. The agreement ensured that chemical firms were blocked from using the new technologies to make chemicals, synthetic rubbers, and fuels from the conversion of coal into synthetic oil. Such arrangements would help maintain a particular economy of oil through the construction of an artificial system of scarcity.

Katayoun Shafiee, Machineries of Oil: An Infrastructural History of BP in Iran, 2018

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That Israel constitutes a colonialist expansionist presence at the expense of Arab land and its owners is not a matter for discussion. For us it is the tangible experience before which all spurious claims and allegations fade away. The “National Home” for the Jews in Palestine became the “State of Israel” within the boundaries of the Partition resolutions adopted by the United Nations in 1947. It then expanded to include Israel with its pre-June boundaries which are far more extensive than those established by the United Nations’ resolutions of 1947, and finally expanded once again to include the whole of Palestine as well as Sinai and the Golan Heights.

That Israel is an imperialist and colonialist base on our land and is being used to stem the tide of revolution, to ensure our continued subjection and to maintain the process of pillage and exploitation of our wealth and efforts, is a self-evident fact which does not need discussion. For us this is not merely a theoretical conclusion but represents our actual experience during the Tripartite Aggression of 1956, during the June 1967 war and throughout the existence of Israel on our soil.

However the truth about our war of liberation has been distorted as a result of several factors. First of all there was the connection between the rise of the Zionist movement and the persecution of the Jews in Europe. Then there was the association made between the rise of Israel and the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews in the Second World War. In addition to these there was the dominating Imperialist and Zionist influence over large sections of world opinion, the existence in Israel of forces which claim to be progressive and socialist and the Soviet Union’s and some socialist countries’ support for the establishment of Israel. All these together with the error of certain Palestinian and Arab leaderships in the manner of their presentation of the struggle against Israel have distorted the truth about our liberation war and still threaten to distort the proper view of the true nature of this war in the eyes of many people.

The Palestinian liberation movement is not a racial movement with aggressive intentions against the Jews. It is not directed against the Jews. Its object is to destroy the state of Israel as a military, political and economic establishment which rests on aggression, expansion and organic connection with imperialist interests in our homeland. It is against Zionism as an aggressive racial movement connected with imperialism which has exploited the sufferings of the Jews as a stepping stone for the promotion of its interests and the interests of imperialism in this part of the world which possesses rich resources and provides a bridgehead into the countries of Africa and Asia. The aim of the Palestinian liberation movement is to establish a democratic national state in Palestine in which both Arabs and Jews will live as citizens with equal rights and obligations and which will constitute an integral part of the progressive democratic Arab national presence living peacefully with all forces of progress in the world.

Israel has insisted on portraying our war against it as a racial war aiming at eliminating every Jewish citizen and throwing him into the sea. The purpose behind this is to mobilise all Jews for a life-or-death struggle. Consequently, a basic strategic line in our war with Israel must aim at unveiling this misrepresentation, addressing the exploited and misled Jewish masses and revealing the conflict between these masses’ interest in living peacefully and the interests of the Zionist movement and the forces controlling the state of Israel. It is this strategic line which will ensure for us the isolation of the fascist clique in Israel from all the forces of progress in the world. It will also ensure for us, with the growth of the armed struggle for liberation and clarification of its identity, the widening of the conflict existing objectively between Israel and the Zionist movement on the one hand and the millions of misled and exploited Jews on the other.

People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine, 1969.

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ny times and la times respectively